Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-10-07
"TRUsTs."
What Is Eight and what Is Sinister In the
Rewest Phase Of Monopoly.

Says the contributor to the American
Magazine for October.
1 am not monopophebist. l have no
prejudice against corporations, even
though they be larger ones. 1 have al
ways believed that any persons engaged
in lawful undertaking are entitled to the
enjoyment of the full fruits OF their
superior skill, inventive genius or bust
ness foresight, and to any advantages
that the possession Of large capital may
give them. To cer'sin limited extent
l also believe in the right OF individualssd
firms and corporations to combiae
for mutual protection and the accoh-
plishment Of desired EMS. All such
combinations cease to be justiiable only
when they interfere with the rights OF the
public or prevent the free course OF those
laws OF commerce and interchange, the
operation of which the general good OF
the community demands shall not be OBJ
structed.
This brings me to the consideration of
the Crust" which is the latest and most
perfect form of monopoly that has been
devised, and to point out some OF the
features which to me seem to bring it
within that class of business combina-
LlOus tuAb nI6 OppOoCA w PuO4iN POAASy3
and which, therefore, ought to be prohlo-
tied by law.
But first it may be well to explain what
"trustn is. Suppose that there are
twenty five separate manufacturing esteb-
lishments situated in various parts of the
country engaged in the production of the
same article or class of articles. Some
are large and some small, and they have
been established at different times and in
various places as the demand for the
article they make has seemed to warrant.
OF course they compete with one another
to some extent, and this competition
naturally effects reduction in the price
of their products and makes their profits
smaller. 1t may even drive some OF them
to the wall and Cause their ruin, but this
never occurs unless the aggregate
product of all the concerns
is considerably in excess of
the demand for the article they have to
sell, or when tue enterprise to which the
disaster occurs is badly managed. No
legitimate business can be permanently
Improbable, unless one or the other OF
these conditions exists, or it may be
destroyed by hostile legislation at home
or abroad.
But those engaged in the branch OF
manufactures referred to are not satisfied.
Their profits are not large enough, and
they are not getting rich as fast as they
would like. II they could only put
an arbitrary price upon their products
escape from the effects of free
ompetition-they would be happy,
but the public would have to pay
for their complacency. To bring this
about the managers of say fifteen Of
he establishments meet together and
form "trust." The real and personal
property and the good will Of each seps-
rate concern is appraised, and from the
valuation thus obtained the true worth Of
it's stock IS established. Then the hold
ers Of this stock, or majority of them,
accent stock of the "trust" in exchange
for 1t, the former being valued st par and
the latter at its esCertained value. In
short, the fifteen companies are coEsoli~
dated into one. The new company now
is so great and strong, and has command
of so large capital, that it is linble to
compel the remaining ten companies to
join 1t or TO adopt policy IN harmony
with its own. The alternative is that
they shall be crushed out of existence.
Having destroyed competition, the
s'trust" proceeds to limit the production
and fix almost any price 1t pleases upon
it. In some cases it gets such control OF
the market OF transportation that it is able
TO force all others engaged in the same
kind of business to sell their product TO it,
and squeeZes them as hard as it does the
general public. An example of this that
occurs to me is the fixing of the price OF
crude petroleum in the new oil district Of
Northwestern Ohio by the Standard Oil
Company last spring at q cents barrel.
The producers had to sell their oil to the
Standard, for that company had q
monopoly of the means Of storing and
Transporting it to market, l believe
the price has been reduced even below
that figure since. This is the kind Of
combination, with many notifications Of
course, that "trust" is.
Now, 1 believe that one OF the fund&-
mental principles of sound policy is vio-
lated in allowing the creation, By such
combination IS | have described, of an
artificial monopoly in the production of
an article of general public use, or in rem
dering service to the public for pay.
We do tolerate certain monopolies, and
even protect them by law, but IN these
cases the public expects to receive in the
end benefit that shall more than remu-
nerate it for the temporary tax to which
it submits. Patents issued to in
ventors and protective tariff laws
are familiar examples. In the former
case the inventor is gwen for
limited period the exclusive right to make
and use the device he has patented but
when shat time expires he must surren-
der to the public THE privileges Of which
he has for time enjoyed monopoly
Without the encourag afforded by
this temporary monopoly no one would
spend his time, labor and money in max
ing inventions, and modern life would be
very different thing from what it is.
The free use for all time Of the inventions
of the present age has been bought very
cheaply by the public when it has paid the
inventors the temporary tax which they
are allowed to levy.
But, it is said the class Of monopolies
which. when created Dy combination, are
ha n